Samaritan Voting

Dear Friends,

Do you need inspiration for participation in this year’s midterm elections? Here’s an approach I read about last week: Vote like a Samaritan!

Julia Maskivker is a professor at Rollins College who writes on the ethics of citizenship. She argues that voting is a citizen’s ethical obligation. She works in philosophical, not religious ethics, but finds a model in the bible story of the Good Samaritan. The traveling Samaritan sees the injured man at the side of the road. Acting on behalf of this stranger, he finances lodging and care. He does what is in his power to do. Maskivker posits that the Samaritan’s choice to help the neighbor is a model for the citizen voter.

Whether one believes voting to be a right, a responsibility, a privilege or a burden, the Good Samaritan model is a useful way to approach this year’s elections. Voters will select leaders for various levels of local, state, and federal government. A given candidate may not appear to affect an individual voter’s welfare, but a Good Samaritan voter would consider the good of the neighbor. The Good Samaritan voter looks at the neighbor’s need as well as her own when casting a ballot.

A Good Samaritan voter will cast a ballot in every election. If more voters are Good Samaritans, turnout will increase. Leaders might more thoroughly understand their constituents’ values and priorities. Leaders might more effectively develop pathways to a peaceful nation and world.

Susan Schantz SSJ

New York State Voter Registration Deadline October 24
https://elections.ny.gov/register-vote

The Duty to Vote. Julia Maskivker, Oxford University Press (2019).